Power plant, nuclear Chernobyl

Ten years passed since the biggest radioactive catastrophe in the history of humanity happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The Russian State medical dosimetric Register was founded after this catastrophe At present in the Register they keep a medical and radiation-dosimetric information about 435.276 persons. 

Public opposition to commercial nuclear power plants began with the misperception that the plants could explode like nuclear weapons. The nuclear industi-y made progress in dispelling this misperception, but suffered major setbacks when an accident occurred at the Three-Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania and at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR. 

Half-lives span a very wide range (Table 17.5). Consider strontium-90, for which the half-life is 28 a. This nuclide is present in nuclear fallout, the fine dust that settles from clouds of airborne particles after the explosion of a nuclear bomb, and may also be present in the accidental release of radioactive materials into the air. Because it is chemically very similar to calcium, strontium may accompany that element through the environment and become incorporated into bones once there, it continues to emit radiation for many years. About 10 half-lives (for strontium-90, 280 a) must pass before the activity of a sample has fallen to 1/1000 of its initial value. Iodine-131, which was released in the accidental fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, has a half-life of only 8.05 d, but it accumulates in the thyroid gland. Several cases of thyroid cancer have been linked to iodine-131 exposure from the accident. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24 ka (24000 years). Consequently, very long term storage facilities are required for plutonium waste, and land contaminated with plutonium cannot be inhabited again for thousands of years without expensive remediation efforts. 

Aerial views of three nuclear power plants, (a) The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of a major nuclear accident in 1986. (b) The Three Mile Island power plant, site of a minor nuclear accident in 1979. (c) A plant in France, which has operated nuclear power plants safely for nearly 30 years. 

The nuclear explosions that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 100,000 to 200,000 people instantaneously. Probably an equal number died later, victims of the radiation released in those explosions. Millions of people were exposed to the radioactivity released by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The full health effects of that accident may never be known, but 31 people died of radiation sickness within a few weeks of the accident, and more than 2000 people have developed thyroid cancer through exposure to radioactive iodine released in the accident. Even low levels of radiation can cause health problems. For this reason, workers in facilities that use radioisotopes monitor their exposure to radiation continually, and they must be rotated to other duties if their total exposure exceeds prescribed levels. 

Matsunaga T, Ueno T, Amano H, et al. 1998. Characteristics of Chernobyl-derived radionuclides in particulate form in surface waters in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. J Contain Hydrol 35 101-113. 

Military weapons tests conducted at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the 1940s and 1950s resulted in greatly elevated local concentrations of radionuclides, and an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union in 1986 resulted in comparatively low concentrations of radionuclides dispersed over a wide geographical area. Both cases are briefly reviewed. 

Baker, R.J., M.J. Hamilton, R.A. Van Den Bussche, L.E. Wiggins, D.W. Sugg, M.H. Smith, M.D. Lomakin, S.P. Gaschak, E.G. Bundova, G.A. Rudenskaya, and R.K. Chesser. 1996. Small mammals from the most radioactive sites near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Jour. Mammal. 77 155-170. 

Makeyeva, A.P., N.G. Yemel yanova, N.V. Belova, and I.N. Ryabov. 1995. Radiobiological analysis of silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, from the cooling pond of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant since the time of the accident. 2. Development of the reproductive system in the first generation of offspring. Jour. Ichthyol. 35 40-64. 

Environmentally hazardous projects are those where the risk of accidents is very high, which can result in a major and sometimes even catastrophic chemical pollution of the environment. Frequently, these disasters take casualties among the plant personnel, as well as among the nearby settlements population, which were the cases with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine, or with the pesticide plant accident in Bhopal, India. 

Exposure of hot particle contaminated soil (sampled 15 km north of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) to film X, Y and Z of a Differential Autoradiographic Imaging Sandwich. The original film size is 85 x 10 x 10 mm, exposure time was 14 days. Area (a) shows irradiation from a 90Sr dominated hot particle whereas irradiation in area (b) is caused by a 137Cs dominated hot particle. 

Mamikhin S.V., Tikhomirov F.A., and Scheglov A.I., 1997. Dynamics of Cs-137 in the forests of the 30-rm zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Sci. Total Environ., 193 169-177. 

U.S.S.R. State Committee on the Utilization of Atomic Energy (1986) The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its consequences. Safety Series No. 75-INSAG-I. IAEA, Vienna. 

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident-Health and Environmental Consequences, DOE/ER-0332 US Department of Energy, June 1987. 

Boulyga S. E., Lomonosova E. M., Zhuk J. V., Yaroshevich O. I., Kudrjashov V. P., and Mironov V. P. (1999) Experimental study of radioactive aerosols in the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Radiat. Measure. 30, 703-707. 

One concern about nuclear power plants, of course, is an echo of the world s first exposure to nuclear power, the atomic bomb blasts. Many people fear that a nuclear power plant may go out of control and explode like a nuclear weapon. In spite of experts insistence that such an event is impossible, a few major disasters have perpetuated the fear of nuclear power plants exploding or failing catastrophically in some other mode. Although commercial nuclear power plants cannot explode, they have a demonstrated potential to pass out of the control of their operators, with unpredictable consequences. By far the most serious of those events was the explosion that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Kiev in the Ukraine in 1986. 

The accident at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and considerable release of radionuclides in particulate fraction renewed interest in hot particles (HPs)—tiny objects of pm dimensions, having density of activity comparable with the one of irradiated nuclear fuel. They pose radiological risk, especially when inhaled with the air after resuspension from the soil. Studies (Osuch et al., 1989 Piasecki et al., 1990), performed on a quite large set of HPs (over 200 species) collected in Autumn 1986, indicated the existence of two, roughly equally populated groups of HPs ... 

Department of Energy, United States, Health and environmental consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. DOE/ER-0332 (1987). 

Izrael, Yu.A. and Petrov, V.N., Severov, D.A., Radioactive fallout simulation in the close-in area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Soviet J. Meteorol. Hydrol., 7 (1987). 

During the 1986disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine, cesium-137 escaped into the air. 

People exposed to a single large dose or a few large doses of radiation in a short period of time are said to have experienced an acute radiation exposure. More than 230 people suffered acute radiation sickness and 28 died when a meltdown occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. 

The exploded fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is seen in this aerial view taken in April, 1986. Radiation from the reactor caused great environmental damage to the surrounding areas. 

Wang, X. (1996). Physico-chemical behaviour of radionuclides in forest soils of the evacuated region of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ph.D. dissertation, University of London (Imperial College), London. 

In 1986, a disastrous accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union releasing radiation in the surrounding area. Public opposition to nuclear power grew and in the U.S., 117 nuclear reactors were canceled. These cancellations outnumbered the country s 103 operating reactors. One or two plants came online in the mid-1990s and no others were scheduled. 

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